By IANS,
Bangalore : The Karnataka assembly saw an uproar Monday over an opposition demand for a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into affairs of a trust run by Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa’s sons.
The Congress and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) members said the trust was making money by doling out favours to people donating to it.
“Only a CBI probe will bring out the truth,” Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah of the Congress said. He was supported by many Congress and JD-S members.
Yeddyurappa rejected the demand and said he was ready for a probe by any other agency or a panel decided by assembly Speaker K.G. Bopaiah.
He said he was ready for a discussion not only on the trust run by his two sons but all trusts managed by politicians and/or their relatives in the state.
Several ministers as well members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party too opposed the demand for a CBI probe.
They contested the opposition move for an adjournment motion to discuss the issue of the trust -‘Prerana Educational and Social Trust’ – based in the chief minister’s home district of Shimoga, about 280 km from Bangalore.
The speaker rejected the adjournment motion but said the matter could be discussed in the house Tuesday, bringing an end to the ruckus.
The JD-S has alleged that Yeddyurappa and his two sons have made Rs.27 crore in the last two years from the trust. This money came through donations to the trust by a realtor and a steel manufacturing company, former chief minister and JD-S state president H.D. Kumaraswamy had claimed in New Delhi March 9.
Yeddyurappa’s sons, B.Y. Raghavendra, who is a BJP Lok Sabha member from Shimoga, and B.Y. Vijayendra, are among the trustees of Prerana. The trust runs schools and colleges in Shimoga.
Both Yeddyurappa and Raghavendra have denied that donors to the trust were being favoured in any manner.
Yeddyurappa has also said that he had nothing to do with the trust.